


Ghost of You

by potsticker1234



Category: AC Odyssey - Fandom, Assassin's Creed - All Media Types, Assassin's Creed Odyssey
Genre: Flashbacks, Internal Conflict, Main story spoilers, Post-Canon, Visions, minor mention of violence, sibling reconciliation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-06
Updated: 2019-02-06
Packaged: 2019-10-23 06:00:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17677781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/potsticker1234/pseuds/potsticker1234
Summary: Set after the bad main story ending. When Kassandra is tasked to save a young boy from throwing himself off a cliff, she is confronted with memories from the past.





	Ghost of You

“Mighty Eagle Bearer, I need your help!” said a young girl. 

Kassandra looked over to see where the voice was coming from. She looked down at the small girl and regarded her with a warm smile, “And what can the ‘Mighty Eagle Bearer’ do for you young one?”

The girl looked up at Kassandra and tugged on the hem of her clothing, “My name is Agnes, it’s my brother. He’s not doing well… I think he might do something awful, you must hurry!”

“Where can I find him? What’s going on?” 

Agnes’ eyes started to prickle with tears, “His name is Luka. He hasn’t been acting like his normal self and I’ve heard him mumbling about wanting to climb the mountains in the south. I don’t know why he wants to go there, but it can’t be good! Please, bring him back.”

A memory of the past hit Kassandra like a tidal wave, a very different mountain from a different time flashed in her mind. She blinked a few times before coming back to reality, “I will bring him back to you, Agnes, I promise you that.” She squeezed the little girl’s shoulder and handed her a cloth to dry her eyes.

She called Phobos and headed for the hills. She knew that she was working on borrowed time if her suspicion was right. The boy, Luka, was going to climb up to one of the peaks and throw himself off. Unfortunately, the peaks in southern Achaia were a popular spot for such a thing. 

She reached the set of mountains and made her way to the tallest peak. She dismounted and explored the mountainside. Sure enough, she saw a young boy standing with his toes facing the edge of the peak. A ripple of remorse trickled into her mind, it looked all too familiar. She pushed it aside and approached the boy.

“Luka, you should watch your step. Come back from the edge a little, please.” Kassandra said.

Luka turned around to face her. He seemed to be around the age of thirteen, Kassandra wagered. He was a young boy with his whole life ahead of him and a little sister that wanted him home safely. He looked at Kassandra with wide eyes, “Who are you? Did my sister send you?”

“My name is Kassandra, and yes, Agnes sent me to check up on you,” she said as she took a few steps closer to him.

“Not another step, or I’ll jump!” said Luka putting his hands up in defense.

She stopped and opted to sit down resting her hands on her knees, “I’m not very fond of cliffs you know…” she said trying to lighten the mood, “Your sister is very worried about you. She wants you back home safely.”

A look of confusion came across his face before turning into a snarl, “She doesn’t care. No one cares about me! You don’t even know what it’s—”

“What it’s like to be paired up against the world with all the odds stacked against you? What it’s like to feel like you have no one when you need them most?” her voice faltered.

“You do?” 

“Yeah, I do,” she fiddled with the hem of her chiton, “But it gets better, it really does,” she said, seemingly trying to convince herself of her own words.

Luka turned back towards the cliff and Kassandra feared for the worst. Thankfully he just turned around to sit on the edge to let his legs dangle over. She walked over to the boy and sat down beside him feeling the firm rock underneath her. She let her presence speak for itself as she surveyed the valley in front of her. The rolling hills laid beneath her and a small river cut through the earth. Deer grazed in the valley as birds fluttered overheard, it truly was a beautiful sight. 

He was the first to break the silence, “How do you know it gets better?”

She thought through her answer carefully before replying, “Truth is, I don’t. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth giving yourself a fighting chance. Life has a strange way of evening itself out in the end.”

Luka looked at her and gave her a small smile, “Kassandra, can you sit with me for a little bit longer?”

She nodded her head, “Of course, lamb.”

The sun was beginning to set and little Agnes was losing hope in the Eagle Bearer. She paced the street back and forth waiting for news of something. She buried her face in her hands and that’s when she heard the familiar, warm voice of the misthios. She looked up and saw Kassandra talking to her big brother. She squealed in excitement and ran up to them.

“Luka, you’re home!” she cheered as she trapped him in a bear hug.

“Agnes, ow, you’re squeezing me.”

“Right, sorry,” she let go and faced Kassandra, “Thank you, I knew you would bring him back, Eagle Bearer!”

Kassandra smiled and waved farewell to the reunited pair of siblings. She watched them walk away towards their house and saw a relieved mother embrace her son. Her heart ached as she wished so desperately for that to be her family. But it could never be that way, not with the way she shoved a cold blade into her brother’s heart in repayment for doing the very same thing to their own mother. At least they were getting their happy ending, she thought. It all felt so bittersweet.

She returned to the Adrestia and was greeted by Barnabas, “Long day, Commander? You look like you could use some sleep.”

“It was interesting alright,” she said.

“The boys and I are going out drinking, care to join us?”

She gave him a polite smile, “Not this time Barnabas, I’m going to get some rest. Don’t get too wild. I don’t want to rescue you from an angry mob of goat herders again.”

“That was one time, Kassandra!” he laughed, “I assure you, we will be civil. Rest easy, commander.”

Kassandra waved to her crew as they left for a night on the town. She was happy that they were finally able to relax. The hunt for the Cult put them through many sleepless nights out on the open water. This was a well deserved break.

She made her way to her quarters and put her weapons on the table. She took off her armor and laid down on the bed. Her eyes closed and she fell asleep almost instantly. As her body drifted off into sleep, she swore she heard the familiar voice of the boy that was taken from her.

The world in her mind’s eye twisted and changed from black to blue and suddenly she was standing knee deep in a crystal lake. The water felt cool against her skin and the night air ruffled her hair. She looked down at the calm water and saw an almost perfect reflection of her body. It moved the same way she did, breathed the same way she did, yet something was ever so slightly warped. The reflection opened its mouth to speak and out came the voice of her brother, Alexios.

“I saw you with that little boy from the village, how you talked him down off that cliff and brought him back to his family. It was poetic really, a girl standing there with a troubled boy on the edge of the world, sounds familiar doesn’t it?” Kassandra glared at the distorted figure, “You saved him, and I applaud you, but you didn’t save me.” his reflection said.

She peered down into the water and recognized her brother’s image as she said, “I tried, I really did, but you gave me no option.”

“You didn’t try hard enough, Kassandra. You were too weak to save me. You are the reason I’m dead!”

“Shut up! This isn’t real!” she screamed.

“I may not be standing next to you in person, but you know it’s the truth and for that, I’ll haunt you,” the reflection glared at her.

In a fit of rage, she swiped her hand through the water causing his image to disappear.

Kassandra sat up in her bed, chest heaving, she yelled in frustration and punched the cabin wall to make sure she was actually awake. She felt the wood against her knuckles and breathed a heavy sigh of relief. She adjusted the blankets and laid down again. She closed her eyes and hoped that sleep would come to her.

 

It had been a fortnight since she had that strange dream and she was running dangerously low on sleep. She was determined to sleep as little as possible in order to keep her mind from drifting off. 

The Adrestia drifted along smoothly under the moonlit sky. Kassandra stood at the helm and watched as the stars twinkled above her. The ocean was completely flat and there were only a few merchant ships off in the distance. She breathed in the salty air and felt a surge of peace come over her. She always did like the ocean. 

A shimmer of light on the horizon caught her eye. She squinted in an attempt to see what was beaming in the distance. The object was small and glowing in golden light. She could’ve sworn it emitted the same soft glow as her spear. The object came closer and revealed itself in the shape of a human. It looked as if it was walking on water. The figure came closer until it was right beside the ship. She peered over the edge to look at the light. The figure smiled briefly at her before it began drowning. It flailed its golden arms as the dark water overwhelmed it. She leaned over the edge and extended her arm out in a desperate attempt to rescue the drowning figure. It reached out for her hand and she saw the figure’s face, it belonged to her brother. She cried out for him but her finger barely missed his as he was dragged underneath the surface. 

She slammed her fist on the deck railing and would have jumped off if it wasn’t for Barnabas’s hand holding her back. 

“Kassandra, are you alright? By the gods, you look like you’ve seen a ghost!” he exclaimed.

She backed away from the edge, “I might as well have…”

“Maybe you should get some rest, you haven’t slept in days―”

“I’m fine.”

“Very well, commander,” said Barnabas. He left her alone and prayed that the gods would go easy on her for once.

 

The next time it happened, she was alone in Perikles’s villa late at night. Since his passing and the disappearance of Aspasia, the villa had become a ghost town. She stood on the terrace and saw the Parthenon on the hilltop. She thought of Phoibe and Perikles and the atrocities she had witnessed at the hands of the Cult. She also thought of an easier time, the symposium, her first real taste of Athenian culture. She longed for simpler times when everyone she loved was still alive. 

“A beautiful view… Too bad it’s permanently stained with blood,” said Alexios. His apparition appeared behind her in the stairwell and joined her by the railing. His figure tinged a light blue this time rather than the piercing gold she had seen out on the open sea.

She did not answer him. 

“If only you got to her sooner, you might have been able to save her...”

She clenched her fist as the image of Phoibe’s body came to her mind, “Tell me what you want, Alexios.”

He contorted his face into a snarl, “I’m just the messenger. Maybe it’s really me, back from the house of Hades you sent me to. Maybe the gods want to punish you for what you’ve done, or maybe... it’s just all in your head and I’m not really here at all.”

Kassandra considered his words and turned to face him but he was gone. She let out a groan of frustration and rubbed her temple with her hand. She didn’t know what to believe anymore. Was it truly the spirit of her brother? Or was it something much more vile manifesting from the depths of her soul? She took a deep breath and decided this needed to stop once and for all. 

 

Her travels led her back to Sparta for a few days. She picked up some menial jobs here and there. In between the work, she stayed in her old family home. She gave Barnabas and the crew a break and let them prance around town in order to get some time alone to gather her thoughts. 

She sat alone at the dinner table and closed her eyes, thinking deeply about what was causing the visions. She thought back to every interaction she had with Alexios after she had discovered he was still alive.

Guilt rid her body as she remembered the conversation they had had when she was locked up in Athens. She had tried to warn him of the Cult’s corruption but it only strengthened his resolve. She thought that maybe she could’ve said something else, something that would have convinced him he was on the wrong side. Her thoughts rattled around and danced closely with the realm of things left unsaid. That alone made her head spin.

The mountain flashed behind her eyelids. It was the second time they both had been on Mt. Taygetos together. She thought that maybe this encounter would end on a happier note than the first, but she could not have been more incorrect. Her mother had gone to hug Alexios; they both had thought he had changed his ways, that he truly wanted to come home. Kassandra shed a tear as she remembered her mother’s body laying on the ground at his feet and the promise she couldn't keep. She remembered the overwhelming hatred that filled her body as she lunged at Alexios. She remembered the fight and the injuries they both had sustained. She remembered giving the final strike that ended his life for good and the horrible feeling of thrill that coursed through her. 

Maybe that was the problem. She liked it. She liked watching the blood spill out of him. She liked making him pay for all the pain he caused. But perhaps she had caused just as much pain. How many people would’ve still been alive if she had just stayed her blade?

She had cut a red swath through the Greek world in order to get her family back and now they too were gone, corpses part of the red that stained the ground. 

She opened her eyes and gripped the table, “I am not a monster, am I?”

“Don’t lie to yourself, Kassandra, you’re no less guilty than me,” said Alexios as his figure appeared across the table from her; this time donning his golden form. “We are killers. The only difference between you and me is the side we fought for.”

“I tried to save you, but it wasn’t enough and for that I am sorry. You deserved better. You deserved a normal life, you deserved to leave the mountain alive. It should have been me.” she breathed out.

His ghostly expression became a little less hostile as he listened to her words. 

Kassandra looked at him and continued, “You have haunted me for too long, in life and death. But I come now to realize what truly has been bothering me. You were right. I’m didn’t do enough, Alexios. You were so young, the Cult robbed you of a proper life. They played with your head and turned you into something you were never meant to be, and consequently, they turned me into something I am not. I was so hellbent at putting you in the grave when you,” her voice faltered, “when you killed mater.”

He looked at her from across the table and allowed her to go on.

“I should’ve restrained myself. I should not have let the hatred consume me. I am sorry, Alexios. The Cult may have robbed you from your chance at a normal life, but I ended it.”

“Why didn’t you tell me this when I was alive?”

She breathed a shaky breath, it was not the answer she expected to hear, “I was blinded by burning anger, but I should have. It has cost you your life and I am so sorry.” 

Kassandra blinked away tears as she saw his ghost transform from glistening gold to a pure white light. He was no longer wearing his demigod armor, instead, he was wearing a simple tunic and held an olive branch in his hand.

“You have faced so many horrors in your life and reacted in the ways you thought was best in your heart. In death, I have come to realize you did everything you could have for me. I accepted my fate long ago, it’s time you accept it too,” he stood up from the other end of the table and moved to sit beside her, “I may be gone from this world now, but you are still here. Forge a different legacy than the one we are known for. It’s not too late, it will get better.” 

He stood up again and moved to the door. He looked back at her and said, “I’m at peace with what’s happened. I’ve forgiven you, Kassandra, it’s time you did the same.” And with that, he disappeared through the door with a flash of white light.

It took her a few seconds to process what had just happened. She ran to open the door and was greeted by the cold night air. It was foolish to think that he would still be there. She was about to close the door when a small object caught her eye. She bent down to give it a better look. It was the olive branch, simple yet symbolic. She picked it up and placed it on the table next to her broken spear. 

She observed the olive branch and thought of her brother’s last words to her. A feeling of peace finally settled into her soul as she accepted the past. Her whole life was an uphill battle, but now she was on the path to healing. It would not be easy, but she knew she could rest a little easier knowing that her brother was finally at peace.


End file.
